Fuel Supports to the Agricultural Sector: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21 ============================================================ Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel We are talking about the Minister liaising with all the different agencies but the people out on the ground were not all part of these agencies. A lot of them were part of none of these agencies. It is wrong that some say in these Houses we will not engage with people who are not in these agencies. There was every kind of contractor and haulier. Just because they are not in the IFA or the Irish Road Haulage Association does not mean they should have any less of a voice. I met them when they were on their protest and I listened to them. I felt some people from the Minister's Department should have been there as well. When there was an IFA meeting in Newbridge in the Minister's constituency, I was there. They were looking to talk to the Minister. The whole Larry Murrin thing was going on. Now that can has been kicked down the road. They are looking to be listened to and keep saying they are not being heard. We hear of this €100 million package. When will it begin? There were road hauliers who were out there and I spoke to them only last night. They told me they are getting 12.8 cent off green diesel but that is if they can get a rebate. If a haulier is delivering livestock, he gets nothing. Why should he be treated differently from another haulier on the road? Everything just got so confusing and there was liaising with so many different Departments. You are giving sweets to one and you are giving a bowl of coal to the other but then you are forgetting that the one thing they were asking for and that could keep their businesses on the road was for the price at the pumps to be reduced. These rebates might come in four times a year but these people have a serious cash flow issue at the moment. The cost of living and of everything cannot be put onto their consumers. What are they supposed to do right now? We are all faced with these questions every day and that is why we are coming in here looking for answers. If there is this €100 million package, when will they start to see the results? They need to know where they will get this money from and when they will see the results. Will the Minister look at real supports right now, rather than quarterly rebates to those who qualify? We saw the CSO figures out last week. As the Government will have €3.5 million of a budget surplus, I do not want to hear the money is not there. I can talk about the public waste of money - I stand up and talk about it in this Chamber every week - but these are people who keep our country going. They are struggling, their mental health is struggling and their businesses are struggling. I know a haulier who transports pigs and does not know if he can keep his trucks on the go. There are little bits of support that might be there for April or might be there for May. He does not know after that. They need clarity now. They do not want to know about all of these big millions of figures that are coming. They want to know what is going to affect them now, how they can keep their businesses going and how they can keep their trucks on the road. It will not really give them any type of stability to know that there may be €100 million but we might not see anything until July. We are in April so I would love the Minister to stand up and give us some clarity for those who are watching in at home now who do not know how they are going to keep their businesses on the road. Green diesel is not a luxury. They wanted to see the price properly reduced at the pump and not in a rebate that they have to pay out first. They do not have the money. It is time now to talk directly to the people. Had they been liaised with properly in the beginning we would not have had the situation where they felt they had no choice but to get out and protest. Nobody blames them for doing it because all they were doing and all they were asking was for the Government to listen. We forget in these Houses who elects us. It is those very people who elect us. It is not anything we need to take for granted. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-21